Cafeteria Health Violations Soar on Staten Island

A new report shows more than 1,000 health violations were issued to city school cafeterias last year and a disproportionate number of them were on Staten Island.

The CUNY report found one-third of the violations were from Staten Island which has only 7% of the city’s students.

59 of the violations in the borough were categorized as critical, which can include visible mice, insects, roaches and unsanitary equipment. The report prompted Councilman Joe Borelli to propose a new law that would require schools to notify parents when a “critical violation” is issued.

"If I was a parent and I knew that there was incidents of mice, and flies, and bugs, and what not in the schools cafeteria, I'd probably go out of my way to make sure my son had a sandwich or something else to eat that day," Borelli said.

According to the study, the four dozen schools with the worst inspections records citywide, largely serve some of the city’s poorest students.